Free Around the River's Bend by Aaron McCarver Page B

need to go, I can help you.”
    â€œI always said I’d never go back to the mines again. I was a boy when I was last there, but it was an unpleasant time for me.”
    â€œThe mines are hard, but a man does what he must. Tomorrow morning you’ll go with me. I think it will be fine. There have been no layoffs lately and no strikes.”
    â€œI’ll meet you here at dawn, then, is it?”
    â€œWhere will you be staying?” Rees demanded.
    â€œI’ll find a place.”
    â€œWe have a small room in the attic. It’s not much, but it’s warm. We can fix you up there.”
    â€œWould it put you out?”
    â€œYou’ll put Ysbail and Merin out. It’s their playhouse.”
    â€œI’d be sorry to do that.”
    â€œIt’s all right,” Ysbail said. “I’ll help make you a place.”
    â€œThere you are. You’ve got a volunteer, and Merin will help, too, won’t you, boy?”
    â€œYes, sir, I will. Can I go to the fight next time you go, Daw?”
    â€œNo, you cannot. But it’s fishing we may go when the weather breaks. Now, come along. We’ll get this man settled in like a king on his throne!”
    ****
    Sion entered the cage and felt the same fear he’d experienced as a boy of nine. Going down into the earth was not a thing for human beings to do, as far as he was concerned. He crowded in with the other men, shoulder to shoulder with Rees Grufydd as he waited for the stomach-wrenching descent into the mine. It began before he was ready, the cage simply dropping out beneath his feet. He took an involuntary breath and heard Rees’s whisper, “Some things never change, and going down to the darkness is one of them. A man would be a fool not to feel something.”
    The cage picked up speed until Sion felt like he was floating. He remembered this sensation and how hard it had been to keep from crying out each time the cage went down when he had been a boy. His own father had stood beside him then and had always kept a hand on his shoulder during those days.
    The cage stopped with a violence that made Sion’s knees bend, and then he followed the miners as they stepped out. Sion broke out into a sweat as he surveyed the scene illuminated with the pale glow of lamps. He had been assigned to work with Rees, and he knew he was on trial. They made their way through a long series of tunnels supported by huge black pillars of coal left to support the ceiling.
    Finally Rees said, “Here’s where we begin. You never dug coal before, Sion?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œIt’s hard work, but it’ll put bread on the table. Watch me for a moment.”
    There was little skill to the work but a great deal of physical labor. Some of the seams were so small that Sion had to practically crawl in and swing the pick with only the strength of his arm. Long before noon the muscles of his arms, shoulders, back, and stomach cried out, for he wasn’t accustomed to such intense upper-body work.
    After what seemed an eternity, they stopped to drink some of the cold tea they had brought in their lunch pails. “Your stomach aching?” Rees said.
    â€œA bit.”
    â€œThink of it this way, it’ll be good training. Mining puts the stomach muscles on a man who can take a good blow to the belly.”
    â€œA hard way to get in training.” Sion looked around and could see only a few of his fellow miners. The pale headlights glimmered, casting almost no light. He turned to Rees and said, “I was always afraid when I was a pit boy.”
    â€œA man can be afraid. That’s not the question. What he does with the fear? That’s what’s important.”
    Sion looked up. “The whole thing could come crashing down.”
    â€œThat it could, and if you were topside, you could be struck by lightning. We’re in God’s hands.”
    â€œYou’re right. Even way down below the earth where